Administration Core

Abstract (Core A) Core A functions to provide the leadership, interaction and coordination between the different projects of the Program Project Grant (PPG) in order to help them meet their scientific goals. Core A will work to ensure: (1) that robust and timely statistical support is provided to all projects and Core B, (2) that the resources of the PPG

are distributed fairly among the projects, (3) that the regulations of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) are fulfilled, and (4) that technical support for hardware and software is supplied. It can be divided into two sections: scientific support and administrative support. Support for biostatistics and bioinformatics is crucial for study design and data interpretation; thus it is an

important scientific function of Core A. A large team of highly experienced biostatisticians and bioinformaticians (Ying Lu, Ph.D., Rie vonEyben, M.S., Andre Shultz, Ph.D., and Subarna Sinha, Ph.D.) will provide the needed statistical support to all PPG members. In addition, Dr. Lu, who is the co-director of the Stanford Cancer Institute

Biostatistics Core, is able to mobilize additional statistical support from this larger core to assist the PPG as needed. Other important functions of the scientific support will be: (1) to organize and hold regular meetings of the project/ core leaders and key personnel, (2) to convene Executive Committee meetings to review the

progress and scientific direction of the grant, and (3) to organize an annual retreat with the members of the External Advisory Board (EAB) to review the progress of the PPG as a whole. Mr. Frank Chavez will act as the Administrative Coordinator of this PPG. He is currently the research program manager in the Department of

Radiation Oncology and has been working closely with the principal investigators (PIs), project and core leaders in the preparation of the grant application. He has also been coordinating their bi-weekly meetings/ calls in the last year. Mr. Eric Alemany will provide the technical support for all software and hardware problems and

questions. He has served in this role for 10-years in a previous PPG within the department and therefore is familiar with the needed IT support and infrastructure. The administrative core will also be responsible for submitting the yearly PPG progress report to the NCI, including the written report of the EAB.

An important aspect of administrative support will be to monitor the dispersion of financial resources and research allocations. The PPG Executive Committee, which is composed of all four project leaders will meet twice a year to review expenditures and resource allocations for the projects and cores. Ms. Joyce Chao, who has been a

finance analyst in the Department of Radiation Oncology for the past 6-years, will serve as the financial administrator for this proposed PPG. An additional function of the administrative core will be to disseminate information on Stanford seminars that are

broadly related to the scientific directions of the PPG. A final aspect of the scientific support will be to ensure that all investigators are using common reagents to maintain uniformity in animal and experimental protocols.